HARTFORD — Fifteen minutes before the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art grand reopening, Amanda Young was baffled to see the entranceway packed with people.

“This is amazing,” said Young, a museum spokeswoman. “We've never had a line [like this] inside the museum since I've been here.”

Saturday marked the unveiling of the Wadsworth following a multi-year, $33 million renovation. The museum reopened 24 galleries in the 100-year-old Morgan Memorial Building and will display 1,000 reinstalled works.

Standing at the entrance to the newly reinvigorated Great Hall, visitor Rose Schroeder said she was blown away by the displays. Schroeder, of Branford, said that it was her first time at the museum, but that she came for the free admission and the Roman and Egyptian artifacts.

“I've never seen such comprehensive collections in one place,” Schroeder said. “I feel like I'm in the Louvre.”

Museum trustee Duff Ashmead lingered outside the Great Hall as an orchestra from the Hartt School began to set up. The 40-foot-tall room features European and American classical works from the late 16th to the early 19th century, and was recently repainted in a deep blue.

“I love the overwhelming style of the hanging paintings all the way up the ceiling,” Ashmead said. “It's like it's brand new, but it isn't.”

Ashmead, of Farmington, said returning visitors to the museum will see it in a “whole new light” as a result of the renovations.

Young said one of the most interesting parts of the second floor renovation is the Cabinet of Art & Curiosities, meant to teach visitors what it is like to be a 17th century collector.

The gallery is filled with natural specimens and decorative arts, such as shells, coral, a blowfish, metal cups and religious figurines.

Dorothy Lovett Buckley, of Hartford, said she had been to the museum a number of times before, but hoped the renovations would draw many others to it.